Fifth Sunday of Easter May 18 2014. *Acts 7:55-60 Psalm 31:1-5, 15-16 I Peter 2:2-10 John 14:1-14The writer Gertrude Stein is reputed to have asked
as she was being wheeled into the operating theatre
for what would prove to be a fatal procedure.
"What is the answer?"
When there was no reply,
Stein said,
"In that case, what is the question?"
It had been a major part of her life's work
to steer people away from trying to find answers
and towards asking the right question.
It could be observed that this is wise advice
for those of us who dare to read the Scriptures
or who believe we know the mind of God.
It is not so much the answers that we find in the Bible
that are important
But what are the questions
I am being asked
by my encounter with God.
Jesus says I am the Way, the Truth and the Life
These statements all ask questions of our life:
What does it mean to follow this Way?
What is Truth?
And indeed What does it mean for me
to live properly and well?
I am struck in this week when we have seen
political harshness in the form of a Budget.
When we are particularly being told
that these are the answers
to problems
that many of us don't actually think we have.
What questions does our political process
ask of me, of our country,
of our government?
One question that occurs to me:
and a number of people
have articulated it both publicly and personally during the week
is:
Why do the poor, the weak, the disenfranchised
appear to be being required to carry a disproportionate
part of the burden?
Perhaps you and I today
can only be expected to
ask:
What questions does this pose for me?
But let's not fall into the trap
so beloved my politicians and religious people alike
of posing pat answers,
instead of asking hard questions.
1 comment:
Steve you don't seem to have understood the thrust of what I was saying, which is that the Bible is not a rule book.
Paul himself warns against this sort of legalism.
I don't agree or disagree with the thrust of what you are saying. Though I do note you are promoting your own blog which has its own narrow agenda.
I think there is a difference between what the writers of the New Testament thought they were doing by, say, writing a letter to a Christian Church. And what the Church decided sometime later was worth including in the Canon of Scripture.
It could be noted that there were many 'writings' going around the early Church which were not subsequently included as The New Testament. The authority comes not from the fact that God was dictating to the writers (this is a much more Islamic view of Scripture where Muslims believe the Prophet received the Holy Quran by angelic dictation) but rather that the Church, inspired by the Spirit, was able to discern God's hand in some of the many writings. Indeed a minority.
Scholarship, including conservative scholars, would suggest it took at least two Centuries for this process.
I don't know any reputable scholars who would or could validate the the dating of the individual books contained in your list.
Apart from the fact that there would seem to be no extant documents before the second century, I think you need to do more to validate your assertions than just assert!
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